After the Hybrid ...

[7rider]

RE: bike snobs.
Oooo, they just raise my hackles.
I'm one of those folks with a $4,000 road bike. I recently did a metric century with a girlfriend of mine who rode her $400 flat bar road bike. Yeah, she had trouble keeping up with me on the hills - she was pushing 26 pounds of bike up the hill versus my 18. But, lordy, did we have fun. It was a great event ... I just didn't want to do that long of a ride on my flat bar bike because of pedal/cleat issues (only AFTER the ride, did it occur to me that I could have swapped pedals between my two bikes!). Did I care what she rode, or that - gasp! - we should be seen together with such different bikes??? Heck no!
I also wear a CamelBak when doing long rides on my expensive road bike (shocking to those roadie snobs, I know!)
To Heck with bike snobs.
What's important is not WHAT you ride. What's important is that you enjoy riding what you ride.
If you ride a mountain bike and want to get something different and are looking at a hybrid, don't feel like you are looking in the wrong place. There is nothing wrong with a hybrid. They are great bikes. They will continue to be great bikes. For many they are a start, for others they are a destination.
Just ride and enjoy it!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm one of those folks with a $4,000 road bike. I recently did a metric century with a girlfriend of mine who rode her $400 flat bar road bike. Yeah, she had trouble keeping up with me on the hills - she was pushing 26 pounds of bike up the hill versus my 18. But, lordy, did we have fun.

Sometimes the difference in bike FRAME weight is partially negated if the riders and added gear are of different weight. It's really the TOTAL of everything together that should be compared. My steel road bike weighs 27 pounds when weighed "fully loaded" with all my gear- saddle bag and tools and extra tube, water bottles, heavier 700x37c tires for gravel road riding, cable&lock, frame-attached tire pump, etc. Yes, I'd like to lessen that total a bit- and I plan to lose 5-8 more pounds off my body to meet that goal.